City Hall: Tax zone would include, not operate, Memorial Park

Patches of dead trees line the jogging trail at Memorial Park in mid-April. The park proposals will go before City Council this week.Patches of dead trees line the jogging trail at Memorial Park in mid-April. The park proposals will go before City Council this week.

Patches of dead trees line the jogging trail at Memorial Park in...

Imagine you're jogging through Memorial Park, squinting past rows of neon signs in front of fast food joints, the music from bars in a kitschy corridor akin to San Antonio's Riverwalk barely audible over the roar of nearby bulldozers.

This is the dystopian portrait some citizens paint of a proposal to annex the park into the Uptown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone. They say the move is a takeover of the city's most precious green space by an unelected board, and fear the process could result in disruptive projects being built before the public has a chance to weigh in.

The problem with this view is that there is no evidence to support it, as city leaders repeatedly have said; Mayor Annise Parker bemoaned the "really goofy theories" that have been swirling.

Adding the park to the nearby Uptown zone is simply a way to funnel $100 million during the next 27 years from one of the city's richest redevelopment boards into a park ravaged by the 2011 drought and in need of erosion control projects, irrigation, a new jogging trail and other repairs, officials say. Though the Uptown zone or Memorial Park Conservancy may take the lead on select projects, officials stress any improvements in the park must be specified in advance and approved by the city Parks and Recreation Department and by City Council.

Parker pointed out the Uptown zone already is working in a small portion of the park in its boundaries, and that a similar arrangement is succeeding in Emancipation Park.

That has not stopped Councilwoman Ellen Cohen, whose District C includes Memorial Park, from fielding numerous calls and emails from concerned residents.

"What I want to hear from you is that we're not looking at Ferris wheels along Memorial Park, fast food restaurants lining Memorial Park," she said to parks director Joe Turner at a hearing last week. "We're not looking at any of the kinds of things that really would destroy the integrity of the park if this program goes through."

Turner assured her no such plans are being discussed. The only specific project on the table today is the Uptown zone contributing $1 million toward a new master plan for Memorial Park, which he said would include ample time for public comment, including at least four public meetings, in addition to several hearings before City Council.

$100 million for park

Uptown zone Director John Breeding and board member Kendall Miller said the proposal to extend the zone's life by 11 years, to 2040, primarily is to service bonds that would be sold to rebuild Post Oak Boulevard with dedicated bus lanes in the middle, to help build dedicated bus lanes on the West Loop, and to help finance a transit center and parking garage at Westpark and the West Loop. The aim of that project is to increase park and ride service to the Uptown area.

Breeding and Miller said Memorial Park's suffering is obvious, so setting aside funds to help the park while planning the transit projects made sense. The Uptown zone's new project plan shows $100 million for the park, but Turner stressed no project will move forward until City Council and his department approve.

The proposal to expand the zone's boundaries and amend its project plan to include the transit and park proposals will go before City Council this week.

Turner blames citizen fears about commercialization in the park on a mistaken impression that the Uptown zone will operate it.

"The parks department for the city of Houston operates the park, and we take that very seriously. Any improvements in a park I have to sign off on them, and I take that very seriously," he said. "This is just a boundary change adding a park into a TIRZ. I have many parks in TIRZes. It doesn't affect the operation of the park."

In a tax increment reinvestment zone, property taxes generated within the zone's boundaries are frozen at a set level. As development occurs and property values rise, tax revenues above that original level are funneled back into the zone to pay for public projects in hopes of attracting further development.

The idea, said Breeding and Claire Caudill, a life board member of the Memorial Park Conservancy, is to have the Uptown zone pay for things that are difficult for groups like hers to fund, such as a water line to allow for restrooms at the park's outer edge, while the conservancy seeks donors to replace such items as the main jogging trail.

'Lack of transparency'

Former city councilman Jim Greenwood said his concerns are about the public's role as planning moves forward. The Uptown zone board was selected to represent property owners in the area, he said, a wholly separate matter from the future of the park.

"I'm glad that they have $150 million or think they will over the next number of years to spend helping the citizens of Houston pay for needed improvements there, but I don't like the lack of accountability and I don't like the lack of transparency that having them be involved in the first parts of that expenditure of money could involve," he told City Council. "The accountability you have on an every-other-year basis is important, and the fact that the other folks, as well-meaning as they are and as good citizens as they are, I just think it's not their job."

'Paying the bill'

Not only is every reinvestment zone meeting public, Miller said, but five of the zone's eight board members are appointed by the city and, thus, answer to the mayor and City Council.

"At the end of the day, we're really just about paying the bill and making sure everybody else likes what we're helping pay for," he said. "That's the beginning and end of it. We're not taking anything over."